moviereview - The Wackness

THE WACKNESS

	A young dope-dealer swaps weed for sessions with a shrink who happens to be the father of one of his clients, a girl he'd like to date.	score 3	moviereview rates films from 1 (unwatchable) to 5 (unmissable)
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Cast
Josh Peck, Ben Kingsley, Famke Janssen, Kate Olsen, Olivia Thirlby, Aaron Yoo

Director
Jonathan Levine

Screenwriter
Jonathan Levine

Country
USA

Rating / Running Time
MA / 95 minutes

Australian Release
November 2008

Official Site

Luke (Josh Peck) is a virginal 18-year-old dope dealer whose most significant adult relationship is with his shrink Dr Squires (Ben Kingsley). Not that Squires is much of a role model – he trades session time for weed and uses Luke to try and claw back lost youth. It’s a struggle that will lead both men on a path through friendship, if not as far as enlightenment, at least to discernment. Along the way, Luke looses his virginity to Squires’ daughter while Squires develops an unlikely taste for hip-hop. So far so deliciously indie.

Which is exactly where Levine pitches his semi-autobiographical account of toe-dipping in the early 1990’s. Immersed in the New York grunge belt, The Wackness is a delightfully self-aware, serio-comic drama that gets away with stylised social reality because it chooses to. There’s a hint of Midnight Cowboy in the relationship as Kingsley expertly refines Rizzo to dispense professional hypocrisy with a side-serve of affability. The drug dependent doctor refuses Luke valium, telling him he “might as well open a Starbucks in your brain. You don’t need medication,” he adds, “you need to get laid”. Wise words.

Both men are grappling with maturity – Luke is trying to find it, Squires is trying to loose it and therein the appeal. Director Levine keeps his distance from most coming-of-age cliché’s as his leads and a cast of low-key kooks make their smoky way toward self-discovery. Leading the charge is Kingsley’s prepossessing performance that grips the camera harder than a well-intentioned Harvey Keitel. Peck’s attractive, brooding charisma rounds out a smart, sweet nostalgia piece about the pain of growing up – and in some cases, growing down.

// COLIN FRASER